What's Wrong with Religion - The Answer to Judgment
Pastor Jason Butterick explores four problems with judgmental religion through the story of the woman caught in adultery in the Gospel of John. Ironically, in many of the surviving copies of John, the copyists marked this passage to be removed from the next handwritten copy. Judging is selective, destructive, hypocritical, and violates the example and teaching of Jesus. God's judgment is nearly always depicted as occurring on a final day, a judgment day well detached from earthly times. And it is not by faith or theology, but by acts of loving-kindness to people in need. Or the lack of such acts. Jesus is clear that the best way to serve God is to serve others, rather than deputizing ourselves as God's morality police or justices. Good religion encourages us not to judge, but to engage in service to bring joy to God, to assist the physically, emotionally, and spiritually hurting, and to find true meaning and fulfillment in life beyond our self-righteous perceptions.